LibDems seemingly take orders from recording industry

Remember that story about the Liberal Democrats being dribbling dipshits concerning the Digital Economy Bill? (it's here, if you don't). If you can't be bothered clicking the link, basically, the kicker is this: they proposed an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill that would allow for national web-censorship.

It prompted one Bitterwallet reader to howl: "The Lords are a bunch of pompous old wankers and that's being kind to them." Well, get ready to have your gears really ground down to iron filings.

A document has been leaked from the British Phonographic Institute which seems to suggest the amendment was basically written by the record industry lobby and entered into law on their behalf by representatives of the "party of liberty."

Essentially, the recording industry told the LibDems what to put in and they gleefully played ball. They must be getting paid in boxsets or something. It's obvious that parliamentarians don't see that copyright laws are wildly out-of-date (can't transfer a CD onto my computer? Piss off!) and that it's not solely about 'inter-business regulation and deals'. If they get this wrong then it could shaft our freedom of speech.

So quite why the LibDems thought it would be okay to go to one side of the fence concerning the amendment without talking to the rest of us first is beyond me.

[...] while ago, we told you about the Liberal Democrats being a bit simple minded when tackling the Digital Economy Bill. Clegg & Co. wanted an amendment in the bill that would allow national web-censorship and, [...]